In what has come as nothing short of a miracle for a dejected mother, their daughter, who had gone missing a decade ago, returned home around 10 days ago. The harrowing ordeal that the girl, who went missing in July 2006 when she was all but 12 years old, went through in these years makes the development even more significant.

In these 10 years, she was sold twice, raped multiple times, forcefully married, dispossessed of her two children and sold to a dance bar before she finally found her way back home, says an Indian Express report.

In July 2006, the 12-year-old went missing from the Khajuri Khas area in northeast Delhi. Her family tried everything possible to find her but after five years of rigorous search and fruitless visits to police stations, they eventually gave up.

The girl’s family believed that she was dead and even followed religious rituals for her.

When the girl, now 22, finally reached her home on July 24, her mother could not believe her eyes and fainted.

She told her mother how she was sold and trafficked, forcefully married and raped by several men in the last 10 years. Her father, a tailor, had died of heat stroke during a protest at Jantar Mantar in 2008.

Her mother claimed that she had gone to Khajuri Khas police station several times, but the police officials didn’t lodge a complaint.

“My child went missing on July 2, 2006, from Khajuri area, but the FIR on kidnapping was registered years later, on September 9, 2006… I wrote multiple letters to senior police officers, but there was no response. After my daughter returned, I went to the Khajuri police station several times, but in vain,” Indian Express quoted her mother as saying.

After the matter gained hype, a woman police officer visited them on Tuesday and took the 22-year-old victim for medical examination.

Ironically, Deputy Commissioner of Police (northeast) A K Singla said that he was unaware of the incident till Tuesday and also didn’t know that her mother had visited the police station several times.

“We are reopening the case and have formed a special investigation team from our district… after recording the victim’s statement , we will add more IPC sections to the case,” Singla said.

Recalling the unforgettable July night ten years ago, the girl said, “A woman and a man abducted me… they took me to Ambala and sold me to a man for Rs 30,000. Later, I was sold to another man for Rs 40,000… he and another man raped me. I tried to escape but they caught me… after that, I was raped by many more men.”

She said that she was sold at least eight times and was raped by more than 30 men.

In 2009, the girl, 15 years old at that time, was sold to a 50-year-old truck driver, who married her forcefully.

He, however, died two years later. After this, her brothers-in-law demanded sex from her, and when she refused, they turned her out without her two sons.

When she went to the police station, her husband’s relatives claimed that she was mentally ill.

The girl’s life finally took a turn when she met a Delhi girl who helped her get back home.